Iraq Continues To Get Worse For Everyone

The civil war in Iraq rages on despite the fact that George Bush says it doesn't exist. October set a new record for Iraqi civilian deaths, and it looks like November may well top that record.

Yesterday, 215 people were killed in a string of car bomb attacks. This follows the deaths of several hundred other Iraqis in the last few days. Complicating matters further, it looks like the leading Shiite party has lost faith in the current government.

The Shiite's are now saying that if Prime Minister al-Maliki meets with President Bush, as he is scheduled to do in a few days, they will withdraw their support from the current government. That government has already lost what little Sunni support it had. If the Shiites withdraw their support, the Iraqi government will be left with only the United States to support it.

The third Iraqi faction, the Kurds, are far too interested in forming their own country in the north, to worry much about the rest of Iraq. If both the Sunnis and the Shiites abandon the government, they will not be far behind.

I'm not sure the current government ever had much support to begin with. All three factions supported the government only as much as they could use it to further their own agendas. None plan for that government to last one day past the American occupation.

In the middle of this growing mess are our own soldiers. There are not enough of them to stop the growing civil war, or even to control the rising level of violence. Their hands are full just trying to protect themselves.

There is talk of sending another 20,000 of our troops to Iraq -- a pathetic gesture. The only thing this would accomplish is to put 20,000 more Americans in the line of fire. It would take at least 10 times that number to re-establish any kind of control over the situation, and Bush doesn't have the political support or the political courage to do that.

Against this backdrop of growing violence in the country and diminishing support for the Iraqi government, the U.S. is left with only two choices. We can continue to have our soldiers killed while accomplishing nothing, or we can bring them back home.

The current political "wisdom" [or lack thereof] of most of our politicians on both sides of the aisle is that we cannot "cut and run", or Iraq would disintegrate into a full civil war. Both Republicans and Democrats need to take their blinders off. The civil war is in full swing, and will continue whether our troops are there or not.

Surely we have learned by now that we cannot impose our will on Iraq. The Iraqis are in the process of determining their own future. Will it be bloody? Yes. Civil wars always are.

It is time to bring our soldiers home and let the Iraqis determine their own future. We cannot stop them. We can only get more soldiers killed trying to salvage Bush's wounded pride. Call it "cut and run" or whatever you want. It's still the right thing to do.